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COMING SOON: THE AL SHARPTON/ARNE DUNCAN SHOW.
In the latest issue of The Nation, I report on the tangled web of relationships that led to the Rev. Al Sharpton accepting a $500,000 donation in exchange for becoming the national spokesperson of the Education Equality Project. The EEP is a coalition that supports mayoral control, charter school expansion, and teacher merit pay. Sharpton, though, has long been a recipient of teacher union funding. The unions, of course, are skeptical of each and every one of these policy goals, so many edu-wonks saw Sharpton's about-face as a clear example of quid pro quo: White education reformers were looking for a prominent African American to lend them credibility, while Sharpton needed the money because his non-profit, the National Action Network, was nearly broke.
Considering the distastefulness of this financial back-scratching, it was surprising to see Sharpton received in the Oval Office -- alongside Newt Gingrich -- as an education visionary, just a few weeks after the donation story broke in the Daily News. And it's even more surprising, as Politico reports, that Sharpton and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will now be embarking on a five-city school reform tour. It signals that the administration is publicly allying itself with only one side in the intra-Democratic Party "education wars," leaving more traditional education liberals -- those who focus on segregation and child poverty -- appearing left out to dry.
That said, traditional education liberals do feel that their positions are viewed sympathetically within the White House. Yet it is the Education Equality Project that has garnered bipartisan support and a lot of media flash. Given the Obama administration's constant desire to appeal to moderates across the aisle, it's no surprise that on school reform, they are publicly favoring a coalition that promotes itself as both "big tent" and social justice-oriented.
--Dana Goldstein
Photo of Al Sharpton used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user JP Shooter.
COMMENTS (4)
I can see how having Al Sharpton as your national spokesperson raises your profile, but is it really what you want in selling your ideas to the country? That guy's unfavorables have to be insanely high. (Back during the primary, a NH poll clocked him at negative 43 percent.
Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | June 3, 2009 12:52 PM
Mr. Werewolf's comments miss the larger point here. So long as the Democrats are unwilling talk honestly about child poverty and inequality, we are left with a focus on educational inequality. We need better than that.
Posted by: Michael A. Shea | June 3, 2009 1:13 PM
Sharpton will follow the money every time, just like Newt. These 2 clowns are mirror images of each other, loudmouth hater kooks, one choco and one vanilla but both nutty, nutty, nutty. Time for some new flavors, Mr. and Ms. America, please.
Posted by: Purdy Boy | June 3, 2009 10:18 PM
hi, dana --
the question of sharpton's appropriateness is a reasonable one, but i think that the notion that the EEP is all that powerful or problematic is flawed.
they didn't get their people into the obama administration, they have much fewer resources than labor and traditional education allies, etc.
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2009/06/the-selling-of-school-reform.html
Posted by: alexander | June 3, 2009 11:10 PM